Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Virtual 5K Complete

I am part of a few running 'groups' on Facebook. One of the members from the Disneyland Half Marathon had posted a link to one of her recent blog posts. She is trying to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. To do this, she had a great idea (not sure if she was the first to come up with it, but I had never heard of it before and thought it was pretty ingenious). Anyway, donate money (different amounts gets you different things), run/ walk/ crawl/ skip a 5K by a certain date, and get a medal. Get it, virtual 5K?! You do the distance, but no official race.

My goal is to raise $3000 by October 1st. To do this, I will need to register at least 50 people. If you would like to help, please consider registering for my virtual 5k. For the 5k, anytime from now until the end of September, run, walk, skip or crawl the distance—BLING included! As a thank you for registering, I will send you a finisher medal. Brand new for this run, I have added a kids fun run option! If you register, your child can too at a discounted rate. The children's race distance is at your discretion. You know your child best. You both will get a medal! I have added a few new options this time:

Donate $20+ and you will receive a Welcome Fall 5k medal.

Donate $25+ and your medal will be personalized with your name and/or finish time.

Donate $30+ will enter you and your child into the 5k. You will receive your medal and your child will get a special medal just for them!

Donate $35+ to register you and your child. You will both get a medal personalized with your name and/0r finish time.

So when I heard about it, I figured I had to do it. I mean, who doesn't like a race medal AND helping out others?!

I ended up doing the 5K distance this afternoon. I really wanted to be under 27 minutes, but unfortunately missed it by 2 seconds (should have started my kick 10 seconds earlier and I might have made it).

I had a few things working against me though, which I will attribute to missing my mark. First off - this was my first 'outdoor' run since my half marathon. I have been doing cross training, elliptical, etc, since my race, but no running outside, pounding the pavement (but man, did it feel nice).

Next, it was WARM. When I got home (it had probably cooled down a bit since I didn't check for a half hour or so), weather.com said that it was still 72* out and 71% HUMIDITY.

Third, I had some 'womanly issues' that I was dealing with today (i.e. TERRIBLE cramps) that may or may not have thrown my body out of whack for a bit.

But hey, I did it, and it felt great! I have run a couple 5K races earlier this year (and Ryan and I actually have 2 more coming up in the next month or so) and this was a PR time for me. I know, I know, running by myself along the beach is a lot easier than with 1,000s of other runners in a race format, but hey, I'll take a personal record when I can get one :)